mental_floss Blog & The Quick 10: 10 Things You Probably Didn't... With Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince coming out in the U.S. later this week, it's time to out myself as a Slytherin Supporter. Maybe you already knew that. Nothing against Gryffindors - I'm no Voldemort or anything - but I always tend to like the villains a little more than the do-gooders. To celebrate Harry and Co.' 1. It has a sour tone to it, doesn't it? 3. 4. 5. 7. 8. 9. There's obviously a ridiculous amount of Harry Potter trivia out there, and since Harry Potter fever is about to sweep the world again, we might as well share it. The Egg The Egg By: Andy Weir You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. And that’s when you met me. “What… what happened?” “You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. “There was a… a truck and it was skidding…” “Yup,” I said. “I… I died?” “Yup. You looked around. “More or less,” I said. “Are you god?” “Yup,” I replied. “My kids… my wife,” you said. “What about them?” “Will they be all right?” “That’s what I like to see,” I said. You looked at me with fascination. “Don’t worry,” I said. “Oh,” you said. “Neither,” I said. “Ah,” you said. “All religions are right in their own way,” I said. You followed along as we strode through the void. “Nowhere in particular,” I said. “So what’s the point, then?” “Not so!” I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. “How many times have I been reincarnated, then?” “No.
Share Book Recommendations With Your Friends, Join Book Clubs, Answer Trivia i love english literature Extraordinary Tolstoy's Answer | The Creative Intelligence Blog. Monday, September 20th, 2010 It’s short story time. This one’s by Leo Tolstoy, the writer every aspiring novelist should read. Daily, if possible. It’s called: ‘Three Questions’ and some of you may know it as it’s rather famous. It’s not too long. One day it occurred to a certain emperor that if he only knew the answers to three questions, he would never stray in any matter: What is the best time to do each thing? The emperor issued a decree throughout his kingdom announcing that whoever could answer the questions would receive a great reward. In reply to the first question, one person advised that the emperor make up a thorough time schedule, consecrating every hour, day, month, and year for certain tasks and then follow the schedule to the letter. Another person replied that it was impossible to plan in advance and that the emperor should put all vain amusements aside and remain attentive to everything in order to know what to do at what time. “How’s that?” Post by: Orna Ross
Family tree of the Greek gods Key: The essential Olympians' names are given in bold font. See also List of Greek mythological figures Notes External links Media related to Family trees of Greek mythology at Wikimedia Commons Ryan A. :: "Our Bloodstained Roof" ShareThis Copy and Paste Better Book Titles 50 Lessons Life Taught Me To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. When my odometer rolled over to 50, I updated the list. Here it is: Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.When in doubt, just take the next small step.Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.Don’t take yourself so seriously.
One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence. Books2Barcodes: Converting Great Books Into 2D Barcodes What is Books2Barcodes? Books2Barcodes is an ongoing effort to convert all the world's great books to QR codes (2D barcodes). Each work featured here is the entire text of a piece of classic literature translated into several thousand barcodes. How does it work? You'll need a mobile device with a barcode-scanning app. Longer books can take a while to download fully. Who are we? We are a team of archivists, engineers, and library scientists working tirelessly to try to make the classics of yesterday accessible to today's technology.
Top 10 Best Novels of the Last 20 Years Books The ten novels on this list all substantiate the belief that books are the most elastic, introspective, human and entertaining form of media that exist. Not movies, not music, not art, not the theatre. A famous author once said that novels are the best way for two human beings to connect with each other. I believe this, and I believe that people who do not find pleasure in words have never had the opportunity to read one of the great novels. Music for Torching by A.M. First Sentence: ”It is after midnight on one of those Friday nights when the guests have all gone home and the host and hostess are left in their drunkenness to try and put things right again.” As the only woman on the list, A. Homes makes this common enough theme of suburban ennui feel real with her shining prose, a secondary cast of interesting plots and characters, and lack of a fairy-tale ending. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (1996) Of course, Palahniuk had to be on this list. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski (2000)
short stories at east of the web A game of Scrabble has serious consequences. - Length: 4 pages - Age Rating: PG - Genre: Crime, Humor A semi-barbaric king devises a semi-barabaric (but entirely fair) method of criminal trial involving two doors, a beautiful lady and a very hungry tiger. - Length: 7 pages - Genre: Fiction, Humor ‘Bloody hell!’ - Genre: Humor Looking round he saw an old woman dragging a bucket across the floor and holding a mop. - Length: 3 pages Henry pours more coal onto the hearth as a gust of wind rattles through the cracked window frame. - Length: 14 pages - Genre: Horror ulissa Ye relished all the comfortable little routines and quietude defining her part-time job at The Bookery, downtown’s last small, locally-owned bookstore. - Length: 8 pages - Age Rating: U The forest looked ethereal in the light from the moon overhead. - Length: 15 pages - Age Rating: 18 Corporal Earnest Goodheart is crouched in a ditch on the edge of an orchard between Dunkirk and De Panne. - Genre: Fiction - Length: 20 pages